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Placing race in contextClara E. Rodriguez a & Hector Cordero‐Guzman b

a Professor in the Division of Social Sciences ,Fordham University, The College at LincolnCenter , 113 West 60th Street, New York, NY,10023, USAb Urban Poverty Fellow in the Department ofSociology , University of Chicago , USAPublished online: 13 Sep 2010.

To cite this article: Clara E. Rodriguez & Hector Cordero‐Guzman (1992)Placing race in context, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 15:4, 523-542, DOI:10.1080/01419870.1992.9993762

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01419870.1992.9993762

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Placing race in context

Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

Abstract

In the United States, in the last two decennial censuses, 40 per cent ofHispanics rejected racial categories, such as 'White' or 'Black', and raciallyclassified themselves 'Other'. Scholars have argued that the format of thequestion induced them to respond this way; that those Hispanics who ticked'Other' are racially intermediate, that is to say, mulatto or mestizo; and,lastly, that Hispanics simply misunderstood the question. This article exam-ines these interpretations. The 1989 sample used consisted of 240 randomlyselected Puerto Rican travellers at New York City airports. The methodsused were descriptive data analysis and multivariate logit analysis. Threedifferent dimensions of Puerto Rican racial identity are compared: (a) howrace is externally defined, namely, by the interviewer; (b) how it is definedby the respondents themselves in both open-ended and closed questionformats; and (c) how the respondents think it is defined by (White) NorthAmericans. The determinants of racial self-identity are then explored system-atically. Our major conclusion is that racial identity among Puerto Ricans ishistorically and contextually influenced. Race is more complex than is gener-ally assumed. These findings challenge the hegemonic and static biologicalview of race that is prevalent in the United States and in classical socialscience literature.

Introduction

By the 1960s a consensus had been reached that race as a biologicalconcept was useless (Montagu 1964; Harris 1968; Mead et al. 1968;Alland 1971). There was only one human race and it had infinitevariation and some population clusters. Yet, race, as people experi-ence it, is a cultural construct (Sanjek 1990). Thus, how 'races' orracial paradigms are determined also varies from culture to culture,as does the meaning of the term 'race'.

For example, in the United States of America race is conceived asbeing biologically or genetically based. The White race was dennedby the absence of any non-White blood, and, the Black race, wasdenned by the presence of any Black blood. This cultural conceptionof race differed from that which evolved in Latin America. In LatinAmerica, race may have had blood lines as a referent, but there were

Ethnic and Racial Studies Volume 15 Number 4 October 1992© Routledge 1992 0141-9870/92/1504-523 $3/1

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524 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

also other dimensions brought into 'racial classification': for example,class, physical type, and ethnic background. Thus, in the US and inLatin America, two different cultural definitions of 'race' arose, eachof which took different referents. Each system of racial classificationwas seen, by those who utilized it, to be the only correct way ofviewing individuals.

The fact that popular definitions of 'race' vary from culture toculture suggests the importance of historical events, developments orcontext in determining 'race'. That there are different systems of racialclassification in different countries (and sometimes within countries)is quite counter to the usual perception that most White Americanshold of race in the United States. This is because of the particularway in which race is popularly viewed in the US where race is seento be genetically based and therefore unchanging. In the words ofAmerican sociologists, it is an ascribed characteristic.

An example of how race changes from context to context is thedescription of the man who, in travelling from Puerto Rico to Mexicoto the United States, changes his race from 'White to Mulatto toBlack' (Mintz 1971). Then there is the case of the Japanese who wereaccorded the status of honorary Whites in South Africa because ofthe changing business context. Again, there is the example of the Jewsin Europe, who were classified by the Germans as a race apart fromother Europeans, despite the fact that they were a group with highlyvaried phenotypes and quite diverse genetic strains. In nineteenth-century US and in the early twentieth-century immigration laws, racewas used to describe not only Blacks and Whites, but also Slavs,Italians, Anglo-Saxons, etc. A basic white-non-white dichotomous cat-egorization was present, but many European groups were also viewedas sub-races, different from Anglo-Saxon stock.

Given the significance of context in determining popular conceptionsof race, it is also important to understand what happens to the concep-tions of race and racial self-identity of individuals when they movefrom a country with one racial paradigm to a country with another.Are dual racial paradigms maintained? Do individuals adhere to theirown perceptions of race? What determines whether they adopt ormaintain their own perceptions of race? Are responses to questionsof racial identity altered depending on how respondents interpret thequestion and its context?

These issues are brought into sharp relief when studying PuertoRicans, a group with a history of contact with the US but with adifferent racial paradigm. In this article we study the way in whichPuerto Ricans, who have been exposed to both cultures, identifythemselves racially, how they are identified by interviewers and howthey think that they would be viewed by North Americans. Thisresearch sheds light on these two racial paradigms - that of the US

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Placing race in context 525

and Puerto Rico - and what happens when they come into contactwith each other.

Race in historical perspective

Although both the United States and Latin America relied on theimportation of African slaves to meet labour needs, the conception andincorporation of peoples of African-descent as a 'race' took differentdirections in the two areas (Wagley 1965; Pitt-Rivers 1975; Dentonand Massey 1989). Of special interest is the case of the SpanishCaribbean and, in particular, Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico race cameto be seen as a continuum of categories, with different gradations andshades of colour as the norm. In the US race was conceived as adichotomous concept in which individuals were envisaged, and legallydefined, as being either White or Black. Although both areas hadinstituted slavery and both had clear demarcations between free whitesand slaves, the category 'White' included more people in Puerto Ricothan it would have done in the United States. In addition, there wasa variety of race categories in Puerto Rico and many were fluid.1

The population of Puerto Rico is mostly descended from the originalTaino Indian settlers, white Spanish colonizers, black slaves broughtfrom Africa, and countless other immigrants. The variety of pheno-types in Puerto Rico, then, is mostly the result of a relatively unexam-ined history of racial mixing and diverse migratory flows. A numberof works have touched on the issue of racial mixing in the island, butthere is no real consensus on its extent. Puerto Rican and Americanresearchers at different times have discussed or found Puerto Rico tobe everything from a mulatto country to a predominantly whitecountry with small subgroups of blacks and mulattos. Compare, forexample, the accounts of Seda Bonilla (1961) with those of Gordon(1949), Mills, Senior and Goldsen (1950), and Senior (1965).

The historical formation of race relations in Puerto Rico wasaccompanied by the development of a distinct nomenclature todescribe the different groups. This nomenclature and the racial dis-course in Puerto Rico reflected the fact that race was seen to bemultidimensional. This was quite distinct from the conception of racethat developed in the United States, where new 'racial' categories andterms were not developed. On some occasions the US census didseparately count mulattos and other mixtures of European and Africanpeoples, but this practice fluctuated and by 1930 the census used onlythe 'Negro' category to describe those with any trait of African descent(Martin 1990). Thus, the offspring of Native American Indians, Asiansor Europeans who intermarried with Blacks would simply be countedas Negro.

The 1896 decision of the US Supreme Court in the Plessy v Ferguson

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526 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

case legitimated the more dichotomous black/white view of 'race'. Inthis case, the petitioner averred that since he was '. . . seven eighthsCaucasian and one eighth African blood; and that the mixture ofcolored blood was not discernible in him . . .', he was entitled to therights and privileges of citizens of the white race. The Supreme Court,however, decided against the plaintiff, thus further legitimating thegenetic or blood quantum definition of race and sanctioning Jim Crowlegislation (Blaustein and Zangrando 1968). The 'separate but equal'doctrine elaborated in Plessy v Ferguson regulated the level of contactbetween White and Black Americans and went so far as to define as'Black' any individual who had even a small fraction of 'Black' ancestry(Chang 1985, p. 52).

In Puerto Rico and in other parts of Latin America, race was basedmore on phenotypic and socio-economic definitions of the personrather than on genotypic definitions. Thus, in the US race is generallyseen as a fact of biology, while in many parts of Latin America -particularly in the Spanish Caribbean - a more socio-economic concep-tion of race has been the norm. This more socio-economic conceptionof race has emphasized dimensions that are freely varying, such asphysical appearance (as opposed to genetic make-up), social class, andcultural modes of behaviour. For example, Sanjek (1971, p. 1128)notes that in Brazil classification is affected by contextual variables,that is, by situational and sociological variables that would include

economic class, the dress, personality, education, and relation of thereferent to the speaker; the presence of other actors and theirrelations to the speaker and referent; and contexts of speech, suchas gossip, insult, joking, showing affection, maintenance of equalityor of differential social status, or pointing out the referent in a group.

This perspective of race is opposed to the US conception, whichrelies mainly on genetic inheritance. In the United States race is anascribed characteristic that does not change after birth, or fromcountry to country. It is more dependent on a person's supposedgenetic make-up and physical appearance than on socio-economiccharacteristics. The US conception of race with its emphasis on geneticor biological inheritance privileges a static conception of race. One isand always will be the race into which one was born, one is one'sblood. This conception also disallows or ignores more contextual defi-nitions.

In many Latin American countries, race is not a meta-concept basedon biological categories, but rather a classification dependent on timeand context. According to this more fluid view of race, the determi-nation and relative salience of race categories depend not on their'inherent' nature as physical characteristics but on the historical devel-

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Placing race in context 527

opment of the contexts in which these categories are valued. Withinthis framework, the points of social reference in which a given indi-vidual operates are important determinants of racial identity.

A number of arguments seek to account for the different racialconceptions that evolved in the United States and in Puerto Rico. Forexample, Denton and Massey (1989) cite three elements of the Spanishcolonial system that contributed to a greater blending of the peoplesin the Spanish Caribbean. First, they argue that the Spanish historyof contact with northern African populations made them more tolerantof different colour groups than were northeastern Europeans. Hence,groups of Mediterranean origin, in contrast to northeastern Euro-peans, tend to see darker people as white. Second, they maintain thatthe Spanish conceived of slaves and Indians as being subjects or vassalsof the crown and as having certain rights. This differed from the NorthAmerican conception of slaves as being property. (That is not to say,however, that the Spanish treatment of slaves was necessarily morebenevolent, merely that it was sanctioned and conceived of differ-ently.) The third factor that Denton and Massey (1989) discuss is theSpanish Catholic Church. They argue that the Church had a centralrole in the conquest and promoted the conversion, baptism, andattendance of slaves at integrated religious services. Thus, the role ofthe Church was analogous to that of the Spanish legal code. It pro-moted '. . . a positive cultural attitude towards persons of color intheory' but failed 'to implement the idea in practice'.

The history of a country's economic development has also beenseen as an important determinant of race relations and racial concep-tions. Duany (1985), for example, has argued that Puerto Rico's econ-omy was less dependent on slaves than was that of other countries inthe Caribbean. Thus, there was less commitment to slavery as aninstitution and there were fewer slaves in Puerto Rico, both absolutelyand proportionately. This, together with substantial immigration intothe island of Europeans and former slaves in the nineteenth centurymade for a conception of race that was rather fluid as opposed tostrictly dichotomous. Lastly, the greater migration of European womenand families to North America as compared with Latin America -where men predominated and European women were scarce - mayalso have influenced the relations between races and the consequentconceptions of race that evolved.

The differences between these two conceptions of race have beenaccentuated and made more apparent with the increasing number ofLatinos in the United States. In this article, we explore responses byPuerto Ricans to questions about racial identity. We contend thatthese responses reflect a conception of race that is different fromthat generally found in the classical social science literature and from

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528 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

that conventionally held in the US. We also argue that racial identityis contextually influenced, determined and defined.

Race and the United States census

In the 1980 decennial census results the Puerto Rican conception ofrace appears to have been manifested. In response to the race item,which asked respondents to identify themselves as White, Black, orOther, 48 per cent of Puerto Ricans living in New York City repliedthat they were 'Other' and wrote in a Spanish descriptor. Another 4per cent replied that they were 'Other' but did not write in anyadditional comment, 44 per cent said they were 'White', and 3.9 percent said they were 'Black'. This unique distribution of responses tothe race item ran parallel with the national level where a full 40 percent of all Hispanics (or 7.5 million) replied that they were 'Other'.

On the national level, where over 60 per cent of the nation's Hispan-ics are of Mexican origin and Puerto Ricans constitute about 12 percent, there were similar results. The distribution of Latinos on therace item is particularly surprising in the light of the fact that in nostate, including Hawaii, did more than 2 per cent of the generalpopulation indicate that they were of 'other race' (Rodriguez 1991).See also Denton and Massey (1989) for a detailed discussion of racialidentity among Mexican-Americans and Telles and Murguia (1990) foran interesting discussion of the effects of phenotype on the incomesof Mexicans in the United States.

It has been well documented (Tienda and Ortiz 1986; Martin et al.1988; Denton and Massey 1989) that the Hispanic responses to therace item differed considerably from those of the general population.It is less clear why this is so. One interpretation stresses that theformat of the race question may have led to misinterpretation. Thequestion did not include the word race, but rather asked, 'Is thisperson . . .?' and provided tick-off categories. Included as possibleanswers were various Asian groups. This may have induced someLatino respondents to respond culturally, namely, to say that theywere 'Other' and write in 'Mexican', 'Dominican', etc (Tienda andOrtiz 1986). In addition, the fact that the race question preceded theHispanic identifier may have caused a cultural response to the raceitem. However, Martin et al. (1988) altered the sequence of the raceand Hispanic identifier items and found that this affected the responsesonly of those Hispanics born in the US; it did not affect the tendencyof foreign-born Hispanics to report that they were 'Other'.

Other research also suggests that there are contextual factors thataffect the way in which Latinos respond to questions about race. AContent Reinterview Study by census personnel found that of thosewho reported that they were 'Other' in the census, only 10 per cent

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were similarly classified in the reinterviewing (McKenney, Fernandezand Masamura 1985). Martin et al. (1988, p. 8) conclude: '[I]t appearsthat many Hispanic people will report themselves as "Other race" ona self-administered questionnaire, but will be classified as "White" byenumerators'. Chevan (1990) reports on a Current Population Surveyin March 1980 in which Hispanics identified themselves overwhelm-ingly as 'White'. Thus, in the presence of an interviewer who presentedthem with four non-Hispanic choices, 97 per cent of Hispanics identi-fied themselves as 'White', while 'one month later in filling out theCensus form in the privacy of their own home, almost 40 per cent ofHispanics chose "Other" and were prompted to write in the meaningof "Other" on the form'. Of those who specified a meaning 90 percent wrote in a Hispanic identifier (Chevan 1990, p. 8).

In light of the historical differences noted above and of the currentresearch on Hispanic racial responses, it would appear that context isan important variable in the determination of racial identity. Specifi-cally, we examine the responses of Puerto Ricans to different questionson race. The exact wording of the questions present different contextsor frames of reference. Therefore, we first explore whether an open-ended question on racial identity yields responses that are differentfrom those given to a closed-ended question. Second, we comparethree different dimensions of Puerto Rican racial identity: (a) Howrace is externally denned, namely, by the interviewer; (b) How it isdefined by the respondents themselves; and (c) How the respondentsthink it is defined by North Americans. Lastly, we explore systemati-cally some of the determinants of racial self-identity.

Methods

The data for this analysis are taken from 240 interviews conducted inthe New York City airport in 1989. A structured questionnaire wasadministered to randomly selected Puerto Rican men and women,aged 18 and over, who were about to fly to Puerto Rico and werewaiting at the departure gates. Security clearances were obtained fromthe airlines to interview during the off-season vacation months of Apriland May. Nine bilingual Hispanic graduates and undergraduates weretrained in the techniques of administering the questionnaire andrecording information. Through role-playing exercises, they learnedhow to establish rapport, how to guide the respondent through theinterview, how to maintain control of the interview and how to keepthe interviewing from distracting others at the airport. Interviewerscarried special IDs issued by airline officials and information explainingthe purpose of the project. Interviewers and two supervisors arrivedearly in the day and covered all major scheduled flights to PuertoRico.

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530 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

The supervisors did on-the-spot checking to ensure that all theinformation had been provided. The checking took place immediatelyafter the interview in order to catch inaccuracies or inconsistencieswhile there was still time to refer back to the respondent for clarifi-cation. Because much of the questionnaire was highly structured, eachinterview took about ten minutes. The interviewing was conductedin English, Spanish, or a combination of the two, according to therespondent's preference. Interviewers recorded responses as well asother observations that would help to clarify responses. Extensivetraining, preparation, organization, the use of culturally and linguisti-cally agreeable interviewers, and day-to-day clearance from the airlinesresulted in an excellent response rate. Fewer than 10 per cent of thoseapproached refused to be interviewed.

The questions analysed in this article are: 'How would you describeyourself racially?' and 'What do you consider yourself to be, White,Black or Other?' These are referred to, respectively, as OID (open-ended self-identification question) and SID (closed-ended question).The third item asks the respondent to assess how he or she thinksNorth Americans perceive him or her (this is referred to as NAM inthe analysis).2 In both SID and NAM respondents were read thepossible categories: 'White', 'Black' or 'Other'. The interviewers wereasked to identify the respondent racially. The race code [RC] utilizedNorth American criteria and was 1 = White, 2 = not White, notBlack, and 3 = Black. This latter variable is referred to as RC in thisanalysis. Interviewers were asked to assign the respondents racially toone of the three categories noted. They were told to use criteria thatwere consistent with the way White North Americans would perceivethe respondent.3

Because of the anticipated influence of context on racial identity,for example, verbal cues, such as language preference, accent, culturalmodes of expression, behavioural styles, self-identification, cultural orpolitical identification, interviewers were asked to code the respon-dent's race RC prior to approaching the respondent. Interviewers wereinstructed to view respondents as would a potential North AmericanWhite employer or a real estate agent. OID was asked midway throughthe interview, which focused on employment and migration issues.OID was immediately followed by SID and NAM.4

Thus, in OID, respondents had the most loosely defined contextand said whatever came to mind in the presence of a Hispanic inter-viewer. In SID, the categories read by the interviewer influenced thecontext; respondents had a forced choice situation in which they hadto select pre-set response choices. In NAM respondents were askedto insert the image of a North American before answering the questionon racial identity. RC was a measure external to the respondent, soit represents the context through which the interviewers viewed the

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Placing race in context 531

respondent. In effect, each of the questions asked created a contextto which respondents reacted.

We anticipated that the open-ended question would yield a greatervariety of responses because this is the response situation that wasleast contextually defined (HI). Our second hypothesis predicted thatthe way in which respondents saw themselves would differ, to adegree, from the way in which they would be seen by the interviewers(H2). In effect, the North American racial classification system wouldbe different from that which the Puerto Rican respondents utilized forthemselves. Thirdly, we expected that there would be an awareness ofthese different racial conceptions. So when we asked how respondentsthought North Americans would see them racially, we expected tofind that more would see themselves as Black. In other words, weexpected to find a 'browning' or darkening tendency (Rodriguez 1974)(H3).

Lastly, we speculated about the determinants of racial identity.Contrary to expectations that might follow from the literature onEuropean-American assimilation, we hypothesized that the longer aPuerto Rican has been in the US, the more likely he or she will beto identify as 'Other', evidencing rejection of the strictly dichotomousconception of race in North America. We reasoned that as PuertoRicans become more exposed to North American conceptions of'White' and 'Black', they will undergo a process of identity orientationand transformation that highlights differences between themselves andthe 'White' population (H4). However, if an individual thinks thatNorth Americans perceive him or her as White, he or she will bemore likely to adopt that racial label (H5).

In order to test H4 and H5 we specified and tested a multivariatelogit model that examined the determinants of individual racial self-identification [SID] more closely.

Table 1. Variable descriptions in logit analysis

SID Dependent variable, 1 = White; 0 = OtherAGE Age in single yearsED Education in single yearsNAM2 1 = respondent thinks North Americans perceive him/her as White,

0 = respondent thinks North Americans perceive him/her as OtherPu Percentage of the individual's life spent in the US

Since our theoretical interest was in assessing the effects of contextualfactors on Puerto Rican racial identification, we specified SID as ourdependent variable and coded SID 1 if the person said 'White' and 0if the person said 'Other'. Thus, the dependent variable was definedas the probability that an individual [i] would identify as 'White'.

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532 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

Two independent variables, age (respondent's age in single years) andeducation (respondent's education in single years), are included asdemographic controls.

The third variable, NAM2, measures how the respondent thinksNorth Americans perceive him or her. Whiteness is the normativecategory in the United States so we predicted that an individual's self-perceptions were associated with his or her ability to 'pass' in Whitesociety or at least to think he or she can pass. Consequently, weexpected that individuals who thought North Americans perceivedthem as White would have a higher probability, ceteris paribus, ofseeing themselves also as White. Our other independent variable is'Pu', or percentage of an individual's life spent in the US. We expectedthat, the longer such individuals had resided in the US, the morelikely they were to be aware of North American racial categories and,when evaluating their self-concept, to reject them. This means thatthe greater the proportion of an individual's life spent in the US, themore likely that person will be to identify as 'Other Race' rather thanas either White or Black.

Findings

Table 2 [OID] confirms our first hypothesis, that an open-ended formatwould yield a great variety of responses. It shows eleven differentcategories. It also shows that 44 per cent of the respondents answeredthat they were Puerto Rican when asked to identify themselves raci-ally, while 13 per cent gave another Spanish descriptor response, forexample, Latino or Hispanic. Only 11 per cent indicated that theywere White and 2 per cent that they were Black. Thus, very fewused conventional US racial terms, namely, White and Black, whenanswering the open-ended question that specifically asked how theywould describe themselves 'racially'. Indeed, only 22.7 per cent madeany reference to physical attributes, i.e., to race as it is defined in theUS, while the majority (65.5 per cent) provided terms that were socio-cultural.

SID in Table 2 shows that the majority (56 per cent) of our respon-dents identified as 'Other' in the closed-ended question. This is similarto the census results also noted in this table. It should be noted, too,that in the sample slightly more identified themselves as White (adifference of 5.4 per cent). Thus, when presented with the dicho-tomous racial categorizations in the US, many Puerto Ricans stillchose the 'Other' option.

However, if we examine how those who answered 'Other' specifiedtheir 'otherness' in the closed question, we find that 54.5 per cent saidthey were 'Intermediates' or 'Triguenos' - terms that suggest physical,as opposed to ethnic, identifications of race. (Trigueno is a term that

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Placing race in context 533

Table 2. Comparison of race questions

WhiteBlackOtherOther-Spanish subtotalPuerto RicanHispanic/LatinoTriguenoOtherAmericanBicultural, e.g., Puerto Rican AmericanRace relationsHuman beingIntermediateCultural and race, e.g., Black HispanicNone aboveMissing casesN

OID*

11.11.6_

57.544.413.16.06.04.83.23.22.82.41.66.07

259

SID*

38.85.1

56.1

4259

CENSUS**

44.23.9

51.8

027,999

Notes: OID is the open-ended question, it asked: 'How would you describeyourself racially?' SID is the closed question, it asked: 'What do you consideryourself to be?'

Respondents in the 'Race relations' category did not give a race or cultureresponse; rather, they interpreted the question to mean, how well do you geton with other races.Sources: * Airport Survey, Puerto Rican travellers, 1989.

** 1980 PUMS, File Tape A.

refers to wheat-coloured individuals, who may be viewed in the USas either Black or White). Thus, in the closed question, fewerresponded with ethnic descriptors as compared with the open-endedquestion. More specifically, only 12.5 per cent said they were 'Span-ish', 7.5 per cent said they were 'Puerto Rican', and 5.5 per cent didnot specify any descriptor.

Moreover, if we add all those who used racial or physical terms todescribe themselves in this closed-ended question, that is, those whosaid they were 'White', 'Black', and 'Trigueno or Intermediate', wefind a large majority (74 per cent) of the responses are physical orracial, while only 21 per cent still respond in purely socio-culturalterms, that is, said they were Puerto Rican or Spanish. In summary,in both the closed and open-ended questions, a strong dichotomousWhite-Black response was lacking. That is to say, the majority ofrespondents said they were 'Other' or gave a socio-cultural response.However, within the forced choice situation the majority of responsesinvolved physical referents, that is to say, the respondents either usedconventional US racial terms, referred to Puerto Rican racial terms,or to racial mixture, to describe their 'race'.

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534 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

Table 3 - SID by RC Self identification and interviewer identification

Self-identification (SID)

White

Other

Black

Total

Missing = 6Chi Square = 14.02, p <

Interviewer identificationWhite

47.6(39)35.8(59)16.7(1)

(99)

.0072; cells < 5

Not White/Not Black

50.0(41)58.8

(97)50.0(3)

(141)

i = 4.

(RC)Black

2.4(2)5.5

(9)33.3(2)

(13)

Total

100(82)100.1

(165)100

(6)(253)

We turn next to H2; the question is whether the way in whichrespondents view themselves differs from the way in which they areviewed by others. As Table 3 shows, there were different levels ofagreement and discrepancy between how interviewers coded respon-dents and how respondents saw themselves. Although some cells aresmall, two large subgroups are notable. The first comprises those whowere seen as White by the interviewers but who saw themselves asOther (16.2 per cent), and the second, those who saw themselves asWhite but who were seen by the interviewers as Other (23.3 per cent).(See Figure 1.) These two groups constituted 40 per cent of the sampleand highlight internal-external distinctions. Thus, while the majority(58 per cent) of the sample were consistent, that is to say, saw them-selves as they were seen, for a significant proportion (40 per cent)there was perceptual dissonance, in that they saw themselves raciallyin a way that was different from how they were seen.

Our third hypothesis, which predicted that the way in which respon-dents viewed themselves would differ from the way they thought NorthAmericans viewed them, was supported. Table 4 shows that, althoughthe proportion identifying themselves as 'Other' remains about thesame, the proportion who thought they would be seen as 'Black'increased, doubling from 5.1 per cent in SID to 11.9 per cent. Theproportion who thought they would be seen as 'White' decreasedcorrespondingly. This suggests a 'darkening' effect.

Moreover, disaggregating the responses of those who said they were'Other', the percentage that did not specify what kind of 'Other' wentup from 5.5 per cent in SID to 11.5 per cent in NAM. This findingsuggests that respondents do not know how they would be seen byNorth Americans. The proportions specifying they would be seen as'Trigueno' or 'Intermediate' decreased by half, going from 30.4 percent of SID to 15.4 per cent of NAM. This indicates that respondentsrealize that North. Americans tend not to recognize intermediate racial

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Internal-External Racial Identification:Interviewer Code by Self-Identification

Internal-External

100

75

50

25

0

Number of

—

-

~ 39

i I

1 I

Respondents

97

••1•̂̂H 2

59

41 ^^H

• IWhite-White Black-Black

Other-Other

Internal-External

White-OtherOther-White

3E5

8a

5Figure 1

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536 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

Table 4 - SID & NAM Self identification (SID) and North American identifi-cation (NAM)

SID NAM Difference

White

Black

Other

N

Missing cases

38.8(99)

5.1(13)56.1

(143)100.0

(255)4

30.6(77)11.9

(30)57.5

(145)100

(252)7

-8.2

+6.8

+ 1.4

SID by NAM: Chi Square = 71.2, p < .0000, cell < 5 = 2.

Those identifying as 'Other'SID NAM Difference

Other, unspecified

Other, Puerto Rican

Other, Spanish

Other, Intermediate

Other, Trigueno

5.5(14)

7.5(19)12.5

(32)13.7

(35)16.9

(43)

11.5(29)

9.5(24)21.0

(53)7.5

(19)7.9

(20)

+6

+2

+8.5

-6.2

- 9

categories or terms. The proportion saying that they would be seenas 'Spanish' rose to 21 per cent (from 12.5 per cent in SID). Inessence, when comparing NAM with SID, the proportion of raciallyintermediate responses decreases, while the proportion saying thatthey would be seen as 'Spanish' increases.

Turning now to the results of the logit analysis, we can observe inTable 5 that the results conform to our expectations and the modelis robust. Individuals' racial self-concepts are strongly affected by theirperceptions of how North Americans see them. In addition, we findmoderate support for our argument that length of exposure to the USalso affects racial self-concepts.

Discussion

The open-ended question, OID, was designed to elicit whatever cameto mind when people were asked 'How do you identify raciallyT.Despite the fact that the question specifically referred to race, ityielded a great variety of socio-cultural responses. Thus, in this mostopen context, respondents when asked about their racial identityanswered with a cornucopia of responses that tended to ignore physical

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Placing race in context 537

Table 5. Logit estimation - determinants of SID (Standard errors in paren-thesis)

Dependent variable:SID2 0 = other, 1

Independent variable

Age

Education

NAM2

PCTUS

Constant

Auxiliary statisticslog likelihood

= white

Estimated coefficient

3.51(1.13)0.12(4.28)2.08(0.33)-0.69

(0.41)-3.75

(0.90)

at convergence-127.09

t statistic

3.11**

2.71**

6.33**

-1.71*

-4.18**

initial-167.05

Number of observations 241

Percentage correctly predicted 74.3

** p < .01* p < .10

attributes. This suggests that respondents saw their 'race' through theircultural frames of reference. (To what extent this may have beeninfluenced by the presence of a Latino interviewer cannot be ascer-tained.)

However, when a closed question (SID), with two conventional USrace choices and a third 'Other' option was asked, it elicited a lesssocio-cultural response. Just as in the census results, which this ques-tion was designed to emulate, the majority gave a non-traditionalracial response, indicating they were 'Other' and not 'Black' or'White'. Thus, neither question elicited a dichotomous 'racial'response.

None the less, closer examination of these 'Other' responses,revealed that the responses to the closed-ended question were more'racial' than the responses to the open-ended question. Summing therespondents who chose the more conventional US 'White' and 'Black'categories with those who said they were 'Other' but specified PuertoRican racial terms, or some degree of racial mixture, we found thatthe closed question elicited a majority of racial responses. Thus, acontext that provided specific racial terms as choices summoned morephysical responses and fewer socio-cultural responses, although it didnot induce a more conventional US bi-racial response. These resultssuggest that racial identification is affected by the nature of the ques-

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538 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

tion, that is, by the field of reference it represents to the respondent,or the context it conjures up in the minds of the respondents.

Other results suggest the existence of dual racial contexts, and, inso doing, affirm the contextual nature of racial identity. For example,for significant proportions of our sample, there was evidence of 'per-ceptual dissonance', - where individuals saw themselves racially in away that was different from how they were seen by the interviewersor from how they thought they would be seen by North Americans.The fact that significant proportions saw themselves as 'Other' whereasthey were seen by the interviewers as White, and vice versa, testifiesto the normative reality of these different conceptions of race.Although the same questions were not asked of White and BlackAmericans, census research suggests that the race question does notelicit similar inconsistencies with regard to the racial designations ofWhite or Black Americans (McKenney et al. 1985).

The browning or darkening tendency also reflects the relativity ofracial perceptions. Respondents shifted the racial context within whichthey assessed their racial identity. Respondents with the darkeningtendency saw their own perception of their racial identity as beingdifferent from that which they thought others, in this case NorthAmericans, would have of them. For many, racial identity dependedfundamentally on the eye of the beholder.

When comparing those who self-identified as 'Other' in SID andthose who thought they would be seen as 'Other' by North Americans(NAM), we found that the proportion of racially intermediateresponses decreased in NAM, while the proportion saying they wouldbe seen as 'Spanish' and the proportion of 'unspecified Others'increased. This suggests that our Puerto Rican respondents were awareof different North American racial classification criteria, but did notagree on what these were. Those who thought they would be seen as'Other' were either unclear how they would be seen or thought thatthey would be seen in culturally broad terms, perhaps as a 'Spanish'race. Fewer anticipated racially intermediate categories.

Lastly, our logit analysis also suggests the significance of context inracial self-identification. The logit analysis advances the idea that ifindividuals understand that they are seen as 'White' by North Ameri-cans, they too will be inclined to identify themselves as White. Thelonger the time spent in the US, however, the less the probabilitythat Puerto Ricans will identify themselves as White. This suggests tous that as Puerto Ricans become more exposed to North Americanconceptions of 'White' and 'Black', they undergo a process of identityorientation and transformation that highlights differences betweenthemselves and these groups. This, in turn, leads to a rejection ofthe strictly dichotomous conception of race in North America andidentification as 'White'. However, this is an area for further research.

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Placing race in context 539

Conclusion

Our major conclusion is that racial identity among Puerto Ricans iscontextually influenced. This was seen in the varying responses of thesample to open-ended and closed-ended questions about racial ident-ity; in the shifting (darkening) responses to the NAM question; andin the results of the logit analysis. The substantial differences betweenRC (how interviewers viewed respondents) and SID (how respondentsviewed themselves) also illustrate the diverse effects of coexisting dualracial contexts.

Our results also provide insight into the racial responses by Hispan-ics reported in the 1980 Census. The findings indicate that, regardlessof how the 'race' question was asked, many Puerto Ricans chose notto use the conventional racial categories of White and Black. The'Other' response did not represent a misunderstanding. Nor did itrepresent self-classification as a racially intermediate person in allcases. These results suggest a more complex reality than that whichassumes that this 'Other' response simply represented a misunder-standing of the question, or that it represented a homogeneous middlecategory of mestizos or mulattos.

The findings indicate that we cannot automatically assume thatbecause Puerto Ricans choose to identify as 'Other' they are placingthemselves in a racially intermediate situation. For some Puerto Ricansa cultural response also carries a racial implication, that is, they seerace and culture as being fused. They emphasize the greater validityof ethnic or cultural identity. Culture is race, regardless of the physicaltypes within the culture.

Others see their culture as representing a 'mixed' people. Still othersview these concepts as independent, and a cultural response does notimply a racial designation for them. In this latter case, a respondentmay identify as 'Other-Puerto Rican' because he or she is not culturallyor politically like White Americans or Black Americans, regardless ofhis or her particular race. In essence, the United States of Americamay choose to divide its culture into White and Black races, but aPuerto Rican will not (Rodriguez et al. 1991).

The findings suggest that race can be viewed in more than one way.For many of our respondents, race was something more than pheno-type and genotype and was influenced by contextual factors such asclass, education, language, and birthplace. These findings challengethe hegemonic and more static biological view of race prevalent inthe US and its data-collection agencies. They challenge the arrogancebehind the biological view of race implying, as it does, that there isno other view of race. These findings also raise questions about theextent to which culture, class and race are inextricably tied togethereven within a classification system that purports to be 'biologically'

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540 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

anchored. Thus, 'race' in the US may also, in practice, be more of asocial construction than is generally admitted.

Acknowledgements

Dr. Clara Rodriguez would like to acknowledge the financial assistanceof the Rockefeller Foundation and the Inter-University Program forLatino Research/Social Science Research Council.

Both authors would like to thank the anonymous Referees for thehelpful comments made on this article.

Notes1. Clearly, the fact that there are different conceptions of race in Puerto Rico andin the US is not meant to imply that there is no racism in Puerto Rico.2. When the interviewer said 'North American' this was an implicit reference toWhite North Americans.3. In order to better assess the reliability of the interviewer RC coding, the inter-viewers were asked to racially classify all of the other interviewers using the samecriteria utilized in the Airport Migration Survey. (It was indicated that all informationwould be strictly confidential.) These results were then normalized and compared.

We can conceptualize this inter-reliability study as consisting of 11 different experi-ments, where N = 11 in each experiment and where each one has the same mean. Thestandard deviation and the mean of the samples were respectively equal to 1 and 0.Our assumption is that the middle category is equally distant from the two otherchoices. The results indicated that there was generally great consistency with regard tohow each interviewer was seen.4. Although the test described in note number 3 confirmed the reliability of theinterviewers' perceptions, we must be open to the possibility that, as Hispanic inter-viewers, they may still have viewed the respondents differently than non-Hispanicinterviewers.

By the same token, we cannot dismiss the possibility that the presence of Hispanicinterviewers might have influenced the responses of the respondents to OID and SID.

References

ALLAND, ALEXANDER 1971 Human Diversity, New York: Columbia UniversityPressBLAUSTEIN, ALBERT P. and ZANGRANDO, ROBERT L. 1968 Civil Rights andthe American Negro: A Documentary History, New York: Washington Square PressCHANG, HARRY 1985 'Toward a Marxist theory of racism: two essays by HarryChang', Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 34-45CHEVAN, ALBERT 1990 'Hispanic racial identity: beyond social class', paper pre-sented at the American Sociological Association meetings, Washington, DC, 14 August1990DENTON, NANCY and MASSEY, DOUGLAS S. 1989 'Racial identity among Carib-bean Hispanics: the effect of double minority status on residential segregation', Ameri-can Sociological Review, vol. 54, pp. 790-808DUANY, JORGE 1985 'Ethnicity in the Spanish Caribbean: notes on the consolidation

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of Creole identity in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1762-1868', Ethnic Groups, vol. 6,pp. 99-123GORDON, MAXINE W. 1949 'Race patterns and prejudice in Puerto Rico', AmericanSociological Review, vol. 14, pp. 294-301HARRIS, MARVIN 1968 Patterns of Race in the Americas, New York: WalkerMARTIN, ELIZABETH, DeMAIO, THERESA J. and CAMPANELLI, PAMELAC. 1990 'Context effects for census measures of race and Hispanic origin', PublicOpinion Quarterly, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 551-66McKENNEY, NAMPEO R., FERNANDEZ, EDWARD W. and MASAMURA,WILFRED T. 1985 'The quality of the race and Hispanic origin information reportedin the 1980 Census', Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section (AmericanStatistical Association), pp. 46-50MEAD, MARGARET, DOBZHANSKY, THEODOSIUS, TOBACH, ETHEL andLIGHT, ROBERT (eds) 1968 Science and the Concept of Race, New York: ColumbiaUniversity PressMILLS, C. WRIGHT, SENIOR, CLARENCE and GOLDSEN, ROSE 1950 ThePuerto Rican Journey: New York's Newest Migrants, New York: Harper & RowMINTZ, SIDNEY W. 1971 'Groups, group boundaries and the perception of race',Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 437-50MONTAGUE, ASHLEY (ed.) 1964 The Concept of Race, New York: Free PressPITT-RIVERS, JULIAN 1975 'Race, color and class in Central America and theAndes', in Norman Yetman and C. Hoy Steele (eds), Majority and Minority, Boston:Allyn & BaconRODRIGUEZ, CLARA E. 1974 'Puerto Ricans: between Black and White', NewYork Affairs, vol. I, no. 4, pp. 92-101

1991 (1989c) Puerto Ricans: Born in the USA, Boulder, CO.: Westview PressRODRIGUEZ, CLARA E., CASTRO, AIDA, GARCIA, OSCAR and TORRES,ANALISA 1991 'Latino racial identity: in the eye of the beholder?' Latino StudiesJournal, vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 33-48SANJEK, ROGER 1971 'Brazilian racial terms: some aspects of meaning and learning',American Anthropology, pp. 73, 5, 1126-43

1990 'Conceptualizing Caribbean Asians: race, acculturation, creolization', Asian/American Center Working Papers, Queens College/City University of New YorkSEDA BONILLA, E. 1961 'Social structure and race relations', Social Forces, pp. 40,141-18SENIOR, CLARENCE 1965 Strangers, Then Neighbors: From Pilgrims to PuertoRicans, Chicago: QuadrangleTELLES, EDWARD and MURGUIA, EDWARD 1990 'Phenotypic discriminationand income differences among Mexican Americans', Social Science Quarterly, vol. 71,no. 4, pp. 682-96TIENDA, MARTA and ORTIZ, VILMA 1986 ' "Hispanicity" and the 1980 census',Social Science Quarterly, vol. 67, pp. 3-20WAGLEY, CHARLES 1965 'On the concept of social race in the Americas', in DwightB. Heath and Richard N. Adams (eds), Contemporary Cultures and Societies of LatinAmerica: A Reader in the Social Anthropology of Middle and South America and theCaribbean, New York: Random House

CLARA E. RODRIGUEZ is Professor in the Division of SocialSciences at Fordham University, New York City, USA.HECTOR CORDERO-GUZMAN is Urban Poverty Fellow in theDepartment of Sociology at the University of Chicago, USA.

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542 Clara E. Rodriguez and Hector Cordero-Guzman

ADDRESS: Professor Clara E. Rodriguez, Division of SocialSciences, Fordham University, The College at Lincoln Center, 113West 60th Street, New York, NY10023, USA.

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